Inquiry-Based Learning in Laboratory Courses

The Laboratory Activities (experimental protocols) we have posted on this website (since September 2006) are inquiry-based studies, specifically guided-inquiry laboratories. Inquiry-based learning has been shown to be very effective in engaging students’ interests, introducing real-world issues, fostering group and individual work, and making students active learners (reviewed in NRC 2003). This kind of learning is necessarily interdisciplinary and requires students to integrate mathematical skills with their science knowledge. Such integration is among the specific recommendations of the National Research Council Committee on Undergraduate Biology Education (2003). This approach embraces six of the seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education: (1) encouraging student-faculty contact, (2) encouraging cooperation among students, (3) encouraging active learning, (4) giving prompt feedback, (5) emphasizing time on task, and (6) communicating high expectations (Chickering and Gamson 1991). We explicitly discourage a cookbook approach to experimental studies that make students passive followers of instructions. To learn more about this active learning approach visit links to IBL resources.

D’Avanzo (1996) described three different types of inquiry-based labs: guided, open-ended, and teacher-collaborative. Each differs in the teacher’s role and the students’ independence. In every experiment we develop, we will provide guidelines for you, the instructor, so you may use any of these approaches. In general, the experiments will let students design their own experiments, develop hypotheses, and make testable predictions.

Specifically, our approach will be to have students:

- describe an experimental design to address the question posed
- predict the outcomes for each possible interaction
- identify and list the variables you would manipulate in your experiment
- identify and list the variables you would keep constant in your experiment
- list the data you would collect to determine if your predictions were true
- describe the data analyses necessary to evaluate your predictions
- describe the graphical or tabular formats appropriate for your data

Statistical and Quantitative Literacy

The use of mathematical and statistical skills in the context of laboratory studies in biology is a very high priority as we attempt to foster the development of quantitative literacy in our undergraduate students. As noted above, the integration of mathematical skills with science concepts is among the best practices recommended for undergraduate biology education (NRC 2003). In each of the Laboratory Activities we develop, we will describe potential experimental designs, the types of data that could be collected, and make recommendations for appropriate statistical analyses. The use of statistical tests to interpret experimental results is essential for undergraduate laboratories to move beyond the purely descriptive and begin to realistically perform the process of scientific discovery.

Literature Cited

Chickering, A.W. and Z.F. Gamson (eds). 1991. Applying the Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco. 104 pp.

D’Avanzo, C. 1996. Three ways to teach ecology labs by inquiry: guided, open-ended, and teacher-collaborative. Bull. Ecol. Soc. Amer. 77:92-93.

NRC. 2003. BIO 2010. Transforming Undergraduate Education for Future Research Biologists. The National Academy Press, Washington, DC. 191 pp. (available at NRC website)

Last Updated: 8 August 2010

Copyright © by Lawrence S. Blumer and Christopher W. Beck, 2010. All rights reserved. The content of this site may be freely used for non-profit educational purposes, with proper acknowledgement of the source. All other uses are prohibited without prior written permission from the copyright holders.

Disclaimer: Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessary reflect the views of the National Science Foundation, Emory University, or Morehouse College.